Could Atlanta — and the other cities that are part of the U.S. Soccer Federation’s World Cup bid — experience a delay in their aspirations of playing host to World Cup games? Mihir Bose, a veteran British journalist who covers the politics of international sports, asserts at Inside the Games that the Americans might withdraw their proposal for 2018 and focus instead on landing the 2022 World Cup.

Australia has already done this, sensing that FIFA is lined up firmly behind the 2018 World Cup returning to Europe. If the USSF indeed does follow suit, Bose suggests it won’t happen until the fall, when FIFA lays out the process for its December votes for both 2018 and 2022.

And if you think the International Olympic Committee’s ways are murky, mysterious and unaccountable, Bose has some news for you:

“Now you may think this is a trivial issue but it is actually very important. And in the race for 2018 and 2022, it could well prove quite crucial. The decisions made at that meeting will shape the deals which will decide these races.

“For a start FIFA, being FIFA, its voting system is not quite as clearly set out and rigorous as that of the IOC. Recall back when Korea and Japan were bidding for 2002 and it looked as if Korea might win. João Havelange, then President, having promised Japan the competition, just decided there would not be a vote. The result: both countries shared the competition and Havelange justified it by saying it was necessary to save the face of the loser.

“Sepp Blatter, his successor, cannot quite pull of anything like that. In an IOC vote on bidding cities, the IOC member from the country bidding cannot vote until his or her city is eliminated, but there are no such restrictions in FIFA.”

Bose points out that a “deal” between the U.S. and UEFA, the European confederation, likely exists — the U.S. votes for a European venue for 2018 in exchange for European votes for a second American World Cup in 2022. Already such alliances have been in the works, with the back-scratching expected to reach a fever pitch by December. How it will all shake out is anybody’s guess, but since this is the first time two World Cup nations will be decided at one sitting, expect the unexpected in unprecedented fashion:

“In many ways, the USA’s pitch is similar to that of England: after all the excitement of South Africa, a new continent and all that, come back to safety and security, well organised events, that will also be very profitable. And the more problems the South Africans have, in transport, in stewards walking away from sites, the more the attractive USA becomes compared to its 2022 opponents where Qatar is making most of the running.

“At the end of the day, the winners in 2018 and 2002 will depend on deals made after FIFA announces the voting procedure in October. And the Americans will do all the running on this.

“How ironic, the new world will decide which country of the world has 2018. It will show football is like politics after all.”

Although he played soccer as a youngster in South Africa, Grant Colliston parlayed his excellence in another sport to take him abroad, and eventually, to Atlanta.

Like many white South Africans, Colliston was immersed in the game and culture of rugby as a youth, first in Johannesburg, and then to Cape Town.

But as the World Cup opened in his homeland last Friday, he was donned in a green South Africa jersey at Fadó Atlanta, which was packed with equal parts cheering on the Bafana Bafana and El Tricolor of Mexico.

“A lot of white kids played soccer, but it’s their preferred game,” Colliston said of black South Africans, who make up the entire Bafana Bafana squad that played to a 1-1 draw with Mexico.

Colliston left South Africa for England and eventually the U.S. to play semiprofessional rugby, landing here six years ago to compete with the Atlanta Old White club.

Now retired from playing and doing mobile marketing in the Atlanta regional office PowerAde, Colliston, 31, thinks this World Cup could be just as significant — if not more so — than when South Africa played host to and won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, its first major international sporting event following the end of apartheid.

“I think so,” Colliston said. “Back then, a lot of black people didn’t really watch that, but when South Africa got to the final, that changed a bit.”

While that tournament is being credited with helping South Africa begin the long reconciliation process, new hopes are being placed on South Africa’s World Cup hosting role to help develop a sport that stagnated under deep racial divisions. South Africa’s first fully professional soccer league didn’t kick off until 1992, and only a handful of current members of Bafana Bafana – most notably, Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar — are featuring in major European club.

A stirring World Cup-opening goal was scored by Siphiwe Tshabalala of the Soweto-based Kaizer Chiefs, one of South Africa’s most famous soccer clubs that was founded by and named after Kaizer Motaung, the club’s president, who played for the Atlanta Chiefs’ inaugural North American Soccer League championship team in 1968.

South Africa takes the field on Wednesday against Uruguay amid a backdrop of labor troubles that surfaced as the tournament got underway. Some World Cup stewards staged protests in Durban, complaining of low wages, and the country’s reputation for crime problems surfaced before the opener, when several Chinese journalists were mugged in Johannesburg.

“There’s been a lot of talk about ‘Can they do it? Can they put this on?” Colliston said about doubts over South Africa’s ability to stage the world’s biggest sporting event without too many serious hitches.

But he said a visit to South Africa in February inspired his confidence that the World Cup will be memorable for all the right reasons. Indeed, Colliston asserted, although he’s now a permanent resident here and soon will obtain an American passport, the pride he has for the land of his birth has never been stronger.

The World Cup is well underway, and Bafana Bafana notched a stirring opening match result in a 1-1 tie with Mexico to make the home nation proud.

But Atlanta writer John Turnbull, proprietor of The Global Game, a most sumptuous site for those interested in the intersection between soccer and culture, has written eloquently about a team that may not garner many more headlines than this oneduring the World Cup.

It’s an openly lesbian team that identifies itself openly as such, which is quite dangerous given the horrific crimes being committed against gay women in South Africa.

The Chosen Few club is getting some attention now from the likes of the BBC and Reuters, although John visited with players there last year on a trip to South Africa during the Confederations Cup.

In an interview with the CBC, Turnbull explains why he focuses on soccer the way he does, especially when it comes to women playing the game:

“There always seems more at stake when women play. They are doing it for love. There isn’t much money for women’s players. It’s a journeyman existence, sometimes going against the wishes of your family and friends. A lot of things are pushing against you.

“It’s always interesting to look at culture in terms of gender and women’s access to sport is sometimes a good indicator of how much equality a society gives its women.”

Findley, a late addition to the American squad, was a surprise to make it to South Africa, and certainly a surprise for this match too. His speed is his greatest asset, as Bradley seeks to replace the same qualities to feature with Altidore after the loss of Charlie Davies.

Atlanta has been famously (or perhaps infamously) been dubbed the “City Too Busy Too Hate.” The sentiment of that moniker, exemplified in no grander way than during the 1996 Summer Olympics, has stuck with us like an albatross ever since.

Now that leaders of Atlanta soccer community are working feverishly to bring the World Cup here in either 2018 and 2022, that famous boosterism is back, and is flexing its muscles as Africa’s first World Cup is set to begin on Friday.

In recent weeks and months, as Atlanta was included in the U.S. Soccer Federation’s formal World Cup bid, there have been plenty of pronouncements about the city’s viability as a venue, the purported economic impact of having a World Cup presence here, and what this might say about the strength soccer in Atlanta.

I’ve written plenty of those words myself, and probably will write many more before FIFA selects the host nations for the ‘18 and ‘22 World Cups.

But for the next month, while the present World Cup unfolds, I’m going to try and relax and not indulge in all of these speculations and machinations so breathlessly.

I would encourage Atlanta soccer fans to do the same.

I’m not trying to downplay the importance of making a good impression during this World Cup, and in the months leading up to FIFA’s decisions. But I think it’s just as vital for soccer-loving Atlantans not to engage in the all-too-serious posturing that happens with every “big” thing Atlanta undertakes.

We like to talk a lot about our ambitions and talk up our city to strangers incessantly. We possess an extreme propensity for striving, of trying to convince others of our worthiness. We’re so worried about what others think of us that we can’t enjoy what we’ve got at our disposal.

While I’m glad there are efforts to stage another international friendly at the Georgia Dome later this summer, and that a prominent sports owner in Atlanta has expressed interest in having a Major League Soccer team, Atlanta soccer aficionadoes know they’ve got a special community as it is.

They’ve been part of a vibrant and active soccer community even though Atlanta has struggled with the professional game, and as a hot spot for spectator soccer.

For the second summer in a row, there is no men’s professional soccer team in Atlanta, and for many summers before that, there’s been little to cheer. The Atlanta Beat is struggling to gain traction, both in the standings and with local fans, in its second life as a franchise.

When I think of the strength of the Atlanta soccer community, I think of the everyday hubbub that takes place in the youth associations and school teams, the ethnic leagues and the watering holes that unite fans like no other force.

Those pubs will be overflowing with World Cup fans, and — horror upon all horrors — some of them will be just a little too trendy for the rest of us. Or so we’re led to believe.

True soccer fans, especially in Atlanta, know they’ve never been trendy, probably because they’ve been dumped on for so long here in gridiron country. Talk show hosts, sportswriters and fans of other sports have made it part of their civic duty as good American mostly Southern males to explain themselves — loudly and viscerally — against what they are not.

True soccer fans, especially in Atlanta, don’t care who else is watching the World Cup games in their vicinity. They’re usually oblivious to them. As I recall from four years ago, the fans who nearly caused me to pass out during the England-Portugal match were not “hipsters,” but rather U.K. expats who live and breathe Ingerland, Ingerland.

When Wayne Rooney crunched a prone Ricardo Carvalho in a very tender place, they were so whipped into a frenzy that I barely was able to find my way out of an overheated, overcrowded pub. The parking lot was blocked, too, so I had to wait out the final whistle before I could flee.

“Trendy” fans might have added to the throngs, but they didn’t produce what amounted to a scene that made me feel, in 15-plus years of Atlanta soccer pub-hopping, a bit uncomfortable for the first time.

For the equally ill-tempered Holland-Portugal match that followed, I watched with fair-weather fans at a more low-key venue.

I can’t imagine what the hot pubs like that are going to be like on Saturday when England plays the U.S.

And there are plenty of other ways to enjoy the spectacle of that match and the rest of the World Cup that reflects the diversified Atlanta soccer community diehards know well. I can’t think of a better example than the Atlanta International Soccer Fest at Silverbacks Park, where many of the nations competing in South Africa will play for local bragging rights.

That’s one of the smartest ideas I’ve seen to build community around such an event, and it’s a testament to the tournament’s organizers and Atlanta’s international community.

The same goes for the Cabbagetown Soccerfest all day Saturday. And Soccer in the Streets is having a nice event as well, one among many it will have during the World Cup.

Of course there will be plenty of places and venues to sign the petition in favor of the U.S. World Cup bid — more than 25,000 Atlantans have done that already.

But above all, just relax and enjoy what’s bound to be a terrific World Cup. No matter who you are.

AtlantaSoccerNews.Net creator and managing editor Wendy Parker (that’s me) will appear on Comcast Sports Southeast during the World Cup to discuss soccer’s biggest event and the impact of the sport here in Atlanta, the Southeast and the United States.

The preview segment will air at 6 and 10 p.m. ET Wednesday (that’s tonight) on CSS’ signature “Sports Nite” program with host Bob Neal. Starting next week, the segments will air every Friday, also at 6 and 10 p.m., through the end of the World Cup.

Many of you in Atlanta know Neal as a veteran announcer who’s called many college and pro sports, but he’s also a big soccer aficionado. He was the play-by-play man for the second edition of the North American Soccer League’s Atlanta Chiefs when they were owned by Ted Turner. Neal also called games from the 1990 World Cup in Italy for TNT, when he was paired with former Atlanta Falcons placekicker Mick Luckhurst.

Our first program focuses heavily on the U.S. opener on Saturday against England, the health of American defender (and former Clemson standout) Oguchi Onyewu, the importance of Landon Donovan and discussion about the World Cup favorites.

So stay tuned all through the World Cup and let your soccer-loving friends know where to watch too!

And please visit AtlantaSoccerNews.Net often for the latest coverage of the world’s game in the heart of the Sun Belt.

Atlanta soccer star Ricardo Clark played all 90 minutes for the U.S. Saturday in its 3-1 win over Australia. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney tried to make the case for the former AFC Lightning and St. Pius X standout’s inclusion in Bob Bradley’s starting lineup against England, though it’s a mixed assessment:

“Aside from being knocked ass over teakettle in that first-half tackle, Clark did nothing spectacular. To the tasks assigned to him, however, he did most of them well.”

Mahoney figures that Clark Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu and Jose Torres all will get a look during group play. If, and how, that will play out remains a mystery, with five days before the Americans’ World Cup debut.

The current pride of Atlanta soccer, midfielder Ricardo Clark, did get 90+ minutes for the U.S. World Cup team Saturday in the Americans’ 3-1 friendly win over Australia.

But Clark, the AFC Lightning and St. Pius X product, came out with just a few seconds remaining in stoppage time, holding what appeared to be a tight hamstring. Clark has been injured in recent weeks and has played only sparingly since joining Eintracht Frankfurt.

In his instant analysis of the match, Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, who was on the scene in Roodeport, South Africa, asks this:

“Was Ricardo Clark’s 90 minutes today a sign that he’ll start ahead of Maurice Edu or José Torres against England? (Probably, though Clark had his rough spots against Australia.)”

Edson Buddle’s two goals were a pleasant surprise, given his unlikely inclusion before the Charlie Davies injury, while Herculez Gomez added the final goal late on a terrific ball in the box from Landon Donovan.

The set-piece defending by the Americans was disturbing, and not just because it led to the Aussies’ only goal.

What a week it’s going to be to speculate on what lineup U.S. coach Bob Bradley will put on the field in Rustenberg against England seven days from now.

Even the fashion magazines are getting World Cup fever, and a slice of soccer nirvana well-known to many Atlantans is getting some national (even global) attention for its local reputation.

GQ Magazine has named the Brewhouse Café in Little Five Points as one of the “best soccercentric bars in America,” sharing that billing with some other vaunted footy watering holes, two of which this blogger has sampled for herself: Summer’s in Arlington, Va., and Fadó Irish Pub in Seattle.

The others are Woodwork in Brooklyn, Cock ‘N Bull Pub in Los Angeles and The Globe Pub in Chicago.

In its mini-reviews (available only in the print magazine), GQ writes that the Brewhouse will be “setting up a tent in the parking lot for match viewings on 3-D TVs.”

That’s all they said, since these truly were thumbnail reviews.

As those of you who have haunted that place know, the parking lot at the Brewhouse is rather small, but outside viewing should relieve some of the packed throngs inside.

Here’s GQ’s online World Cup guide, which includes a Q and A with new fashion boy Oguchi Onyewu, among other things.

Trying not to be outdone, Vanity Fair has a fairly decent World Cup blog, and you might have noticed the beefcake cover of the magazine this month with Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo. They were among the World Cup stars (along with Landon Donovan) who gladly went before the cameras for Annie Leibovitz.

This was shot well before the final rosters were due, since Brazil’s Pato and Michael Ballack of Germany are featured: